Hypnotized in Las Vegas

A funny but sad comment on Las Vegas -- as we walked through the casino the kids observed the slot players. At one point, Emma asked quite innocently (and loudly), "Why are they all hypnotized?" and then made a pose of staring and put her arm and hand in the position they have their arms and hands and made the motion of hitting the button over and over with a blank stare. I laughed that she had observed the zombie-like addicts. Then for a moment I had the thought to be embarrassed by her very forward comment, in case some of them had overheard. But, then I thought, 1) it's truthful, 2) if any did overhear, perhaps it would be a wakeup call, and 3) I looked around and saw that none of the zombies had heard or or if they had, they had no reaction to it. All in all, the casino, especially the rows and rows and columns and columns of slot machines, is quite a surreal place. Freaky almost. And sad. We even saw a very old couple who looked to be in their 80s (really 80s, and not just the early aging of a chain-smoker) with the wife slumped forward in a wheelchair -- the both of them clearly belonging in a convalescent community -- and probably spending their fixed-income social security. The wife just sat there nearly comatose, hardly watching as the husband put in coins and pushed the button. (I didn't see any slot machines with Levers. i guess levers is too much work, whereas a button is manageable). I'm saddened when I think of the shattered lives that Vegas results in. I'm saddened that the prophets rallying cry to vote against gambling was not listened to by even the saints, who feel the prophet may speak on religion but should mind his own business about politics.

The experience for my children of observing casino behavior gave us the chance to discuss these things. I think that it is healthy to expose them to that and discuss it. As opposed to some christian/mormon parents who refuse to bring their children into the den of iniquity for fear of exposing to something they will then want to partake of. Indeed, one of Emmas teammates did not come to this meet because of that very reason - her parents refused to participate in a meet in "Sin City". My philosophy is that to pretend it isn't there and shield them from knowing about it opens the way to them having to decide at that moment how they will choose, when they learn about it on their own. Whereas if we teach them about it purposefully, we can prepare them now so they can make the choice now to not fall into that trap and then they won't have to decide that later, in the moment. (Some might call that indoctrination, I think of it as innoculation :)

-Joe

Lady Luck Invitational

We are well-pleased with Emma's performance again in Las Vegas at the Lady Luck Invitational.

There were over 80 Level 4 gymnasts! They divided them into more or less age groups, combining and dividing age groups to try to keep each group at around 16 gymnasts. There were 17 in Emma's group.

Here are her scores:

Vault: 9.4 -- She took 2nd!

Bars: 9.0 -- 5th place.

Floor: 8.55 -- 7th place. She got a huge deduction for absent-mindedly replacing one skill with another, of less value. She knew immediately what she did wrong, and can point it out on the video, and demonstrate the subtle difference in the two skills (which to me look nearly identical, haha).

Beam:8.175 -- didn't place. She fell off the beam doing one of her skills. She got back on and finished well, though. There were some gymnasts who did not fall and scored down in the 8.1s and even lower. So, she kept her composure after the fall, and held back the little cry to have with her coach after she was done. She knows what she did wrong (looked down during a turn). It's also possible she was distracted because I was in direct line of sight to her. The guy sitting in front of me after she finished turned and said that she made eye contact with me four times during her routine. I didn't see that, as I was filming. (I'll have to figure out how to make videos available on this blog). After the meet, Emma did say she liked her first meet much better, where all the audience was up a floor looking down, rather than at eye level. Less distraction. But, her coach told us that the gymnasts just have to develop the focus to drown out the audience and focus on the performance. She says Emma will get that with more experience.

Overall: 35.13 -- 7th place.

But, Emma really shined in my eyes when one of her team-mates (the best in her school at her level, with Emma being right behind her in skill-level) was having a hard day. She fell on a kick-over, one of the first, most basic skills that she has done hundreds of times. It was just a slip, not a matter of it being a skill she has barely mastered and only does right some percentage of the time. Jenessa was pretty devastated and crying. Emma went to her and put her arm around her and comforted her. Jenessa then messed up on Vault, faulting completely on her second run, but still getting a 9.05 with just her first run, and then messed up a skill and needed a coaches help on bars. She was saying she wants to quit gymnastics. Emma comforted her, and gave her good advice like "sometimes mistakes happen, we don't give up, we keep trying", etc. Jenessa then did great on Beam and tied for First Place. So, she was able to get back her composure after doing poorly on her first three events. Hopefully she sticks to it -- that's where mental toughness comes in. But, anyway, I was so proud of Emma for comforting her teammate -- the one with whom she is the most competitive and wants to beat. There was not one bit of personal satisfaction at knowing she would place ahead of Jenessa -- I doubt it even crossed her mind. She just felt empathy for her teammate. Emma does have strong leadership qualities (she is usually the one telling her teammates where to stand, etc.), and if we can just channel those qualitied she'll be able to influence the lives of others for good.

The kids loved the warm weather, and the outdoor swimming pool. I can understand why some people maintain a winter home in Nevada or Arizona, or anywhere south of the Utah border. :)

Trust in the Lord, continued...

A few additional thoughts on my last post.

1) I found this scripture:

The secret things belong unto the LORD our God: but those things which are revealed belong unto us and to our children for ever, that we may do all the words of this law (Deuteronomy 29:29)

Backup up the thought that whatever knowledge the Lord has revealed to man is for our use. E.g., medical knowledge.

2) Regarding Confidence. "We are most confident in that with which we are the most familiar". I learned this phrase from Dr. Glen Kimber, son-in-law of Cleon Skousen and founder of Kimber Academy, the intellectual predecessor of Prosperity Learning Center where Maya, Emma, and Joseph go 12 hours a week for education to supplement their home-education.
Emma's meet demonstrated this. Because she left the full gymnastics training for 18 months and did only tumbling traing at Jolley's Gymnastics, she got intense focus on tumbling skills, which are what Floor Excercises is mostly. So, she is HIGHLY confident on floor, and took Second Place in floor in her first meet. She took 5th, and 6th place in the other events -- Uneven Bars, Balance Beam, and Vault. So, if looking at her skills, she's a 5th-6th place skill-wise with her peers, but on Floor she goes outside her 'average' and excels. She is more familiar with it, and highly confident. She is more relaxed, and doesn't stress about Floor as she does the other.
I believe we will have more confidence in the Lord, the more familiar we become with him. If we spend hours and hours of our lives viewing television (hey, I like Terminator, the Sarah Conner Chronicles as much as the next guy :), our familiarity is with fiction. Our confidence will be in 'vain imaginations'. If we were to spend those hours and hours instead on reality -- on becoming experts on the doctrines of the gospel, our confidence will be with that which we are most familiar.

-Joe

Trust in the Lord

I read this today and wanted to share it:

Psalms 118:8 -- It is better to trust in the Lord than to put confidence in man.

I pray that I can trust in the Lord more, and less on the arm of flesh.

I must confess that ever since Caleb died, I have a very easy time of not trusting in the arm of flesh. The doctors were assuring us in no uncertain terms, even up to five hours before Caleb died that, "we can fix this".

Perhaps my ease of not trusting in the arm of flesh is too easy now -- I have very little confidence in man at all. Perhaps I'm 'gun-shy' about placing my confidence in man. Perhaps I'm too untrusting.

I know that God has given man great medical knowledge for the improvement of our lives. Many of us have benefited from this knowledge. I have 10 full fingers, whereas I had uncles and grandpas with missing fingers. My Mom is alive thanks to medical knowledge. Perhaps dad too, thanks to proper medicines. But on Nov. 8, 2004, I came face to face with the undeniable reality that doctors are not God. (This may run contrary to some of their opinions of themselves.)

Like every tool, the knowledge of medicine can be used for good or evil -- to be an instrument in God's hands, or to be a 'usurper' and excercise unrighteous dominion and to get gain.

I'm not saying the doctors that attended to Caleb are necessarily evil and just out to get gain. But, they certainly did have give the impression that they held the opinion of "we can fix everything". Until they couldn't.

I also watched as Rebecca McKinnes, Lucia's midwife, helped her have a natural birth with our Becky, and was so grateful for the way she (the midwife) blesses lives with the knowledge God provides. After all the children, I have seen a huge contrast between doctors who show up the last 1 minute to catch the baby and get all the credit, to doctors who even though the nurses delivered the baby show up and get all the payment unjustly, to Becky McKinnes who walked Lucia through a birth experience that had her smiling with true Joy during birth rather than being fearful and hating every second and just wishing it was over.

So, I've seen both sides of the coin -- man (er, woman :) blessing others by being an instrument in God's hands, and man having unjustified confidence in the arm of flesh.

Anyway, I came across this scripture today and wanted to share some of my random thoughts it prompted.

-Joe

Fairy Tales

Results from Emma's first meet

Emma had her first competitive gymnastics meet today, the "Crystal Cup" hosted in Lehi, Utah by her club Olympus Gymnastics.

There are 20 teams in the Crystal Cup, from at UT, ID, CA, WA, OR, NV, and OK.

However, only three teams brought their Level 4 gymnasts. (Level 4 are usually 7 to 12 year olds, so it's understandable why many wouldn't bring their younger gymnasts, especially if they are on tight travel budgets). Or, perhaps those other teams just don't have Level 4 gymnasts, I don't know. In any case, there were only three teams with Level 4 gymnasts here:
Madison from Madison, ID,
Starzz from Reno, NV,
Olympus Gymastics from Sandy, UT (Emma's team).

There were 16 Level 4 gymnasts in all.

She scored the following:

Vault: 9.1. (average of two runs. 9.3 and 8.9)
Beam: 8.6. (average of two judges scores. 8.65 and 8.55)
Bars: 8.6. (average of two judges scores. 8.7 and 8.5)
Floor: 9.325. (average of two judges scores. 9.4 and 9.25).

She placed:
Vault: 4th
Beam: 6th
Bars: 6th
Floor: 2nd
Overall: 5th place, with 35.625 points.

We are well pleased with Emma.

We look forward to her next meet, the "Lady Luck Invitational", which is Friday, January 16 in Las Vegas.

The word is that she also has all the skills required to move up to Level 5, she just needs to work on Form (Point Those Toes! and straight legs, and less wobble). So, she's motivated. (Girls can spend years in level 4, but don't have to. They just advance when they are ready.)

Maya is on Pre-Team (Level 3). She only lacks three skills, all on uneven bars, and then she'll be ready to advance to Level 4 and she'll be competing next year. She really wants to master the skills, and complains when the coach doesn't work on uneven bars during practice. She wants us to either get uneven bars for the garage, or pay for private lessons, which really do help. But we'll have to see -- either option is expensive. She may just need to learn with time and focused practice.

We've put the boys into gymnastics as well this year. They both like it, but both have a problem with focusing their attention . (They are young boys after all, and doing just the same as all the other boys in their class. Their coach is VERY patient. :).

Becky, who can already do a bridge and splits just 'cause her sisters do, really wants to start, but she must be potty-trained first, so she has good incentive and is really trying. If we remind her to go potty and she resists, we just remind her that she wants to because she can't start "gymnastics suit" as she call gymnastics, until she no longer needs a diaper. It's so cute how any resistance melts right away and she goes and tries. She'll get there, all in due time. (Besides, why pay coaches to teach her what her sisters can and do! :) (Further besides, I've seen the way some of the parents push their little 3-year olds, and that just doesn't fit our philosophy that it must come from within themselves, not be pushed on them by parents trying to live achieve vicareously through their children).

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Here's some interesting facts:

Olympus Gymnastics has been in business 15 years, and in that time, 95% of the gymnasts (who stick it out through Level 10) get a full college tuition scholarship at colleges across the country. (Although my impression is that BYU and UofU are favorites). So you see, I'll pay for their lessons now, but they all get to pay for their own college! (My justification for not putting money away monthly into a college fund for them... :)

Mary Wright, the head coach and owner of Olympus Gymnastics is also the choreographer and Assistant Coach for the University of Utah's Gymnastics Team. 56 of Mary's athlete's have received full gymnastics scholarships, 10 of her athlete's have made Olympic Teams, and many of her athlete's have won many national titles.

-Joe